Well, avid reader, if you have gotten this far, and been bored enough to actually click on a link to find out a little bit more about me, I suppose that the least that I can do is to oblige you in some small manner.
My Family
I am the ninth child out of twelve. I would say that I had a normal childhood, but with the size of my family, there isn’t much normal about that. Of course, I had all the normal sibling rivalries and such, but being number nine had its disadvantages. It was hard to to get into any of the normal types of trouble that most other kids were able to. My older brothers and sisters usually had already done it. I had to come up with new and interesting ways to get into trouble.
My all time favorite was the time I tied my sister’s feet together, and then hung her upside down from the rafters on the back porch. I left her there until her screaming attracted the attention of one of my older sisters, who was upstairs in her room. I was then made to let her loose, at which point I decided that it was time to make myself scarce for a while.
Life in the Army
When I turned 20, I decided to join the Army. After Basic and AIT, I was stationed in Panama – the country, not the beach in Florida.
I was part of the USAISC (United States Army Information System Command), stationed in Corozal, Panama. It was interesting, our barracks was not part of a regular military base, we were off by ourselves. The compound was fenced in on only three sides (the fourth being jungle), and the gates didn’t close (I am not sure they could if we wanted them to).
The buildings of the compound used to be part of a mental institution and it was across the street from an American cemetary. When grabbing a taxi from down town, all we had to do was to tell them to take us to “Casa de Loco” (the crazy house), and they knew right where to take us.
I got out with an Honorable Discharge in 1989. I was known as an IRR (Inactive Ready Reserve) because the basic, initial term of service for the military is 8 years, no matter how long you spend active, the remainder will be spent as IRR, in case you need to be called up again.
The following year, on December 7th, I got a letter from the Army asking me to call, so I did. They wanted to to know if I would volunteer for Operation: Desert Shield (a month later it became Operation: Desert Storm), volunteer for a 2 week training tour, or do nothing. I asked for a little time to think it over.
When I called them back about half an hour later, I literally told them “Lah Dee Dah Dee, Send me to Saudi”. And they did…. As for remembering that I got the post card on December 7th – well, that is also known as Pearl Harbor Day, and it also the day my one older brother was getting married. In fact, I called to let my parents know that I was going back in for Saudi about 2 hours before the ceremony.
Life Now
Well, after returning from Saudi, I soon met a beautiful young girl who I later ended up marrying on May, 4th 1992. We have been happily married ever since, and we have one son (born April 23rd, 1993). When he was smaller, we used to call him the Demon Child. He still is… oy!
We currently live in NW Georgia – Rome, GA to be specific, and my son is in the Air Force JROTC at the local high school.
Anyways, I work for a small role-playing game company known as Iron Crown Enterprises. We produce some rpgs known as Rolemaster and HARP. I work as both editor and author, and I also am responsible for all of our websites, and internet related stuff.
In addition to my job (which I do from home — very cool), I also have my own little online store, NikNak Gifts, from which I sell nice little gifts and collectibles. You really should check it out. Unfortunately, I can only sell to those in the US and Canada right now, and cannot ship anything overseas.
Wrapping it up…
Well, I guess that that is enough for now. Other than to provide you with a picture of myself. Now, this pic is a few years old, it was taken at DragonCon (a convention in Atlanta) in 2001, IIRC.
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